Shandon Armstrong

“She was good at getting girls to fall in love with her. She couldn’t really love them back though. Like her dolls, they were all interchangeable. And loving everyone is the same thing as loving nobody at all.”
― Heather O'Neill, When We Lost Our Heads

“I often think life is just a performance. None of this is real. It’s a pretense at reality, that’s all. Only when someone, or something, we love dies, do we wake up from the play—and see how artificial it all is—this constructed reality we inhabit. We suddenly realize that life is in no way lasting, or permanent; no future exists—and nothing we do matters. And in desolation, we howl and scream and rail at the heavens, until, at some point, we do the inevitable: we eat, dress, and brush our teeth. We continue with the marionette-like motions of life, however unhinged it feels to do so. Then, ever so slowly, the illusion takes over again—until we forget that we are actors in a play. Until the next tragedy strikes—to wake us up.”
― Alex Michaelides, The Fury

“He knew how to look at people in a way that made them feel slightly insecure. The Arnetts all had faces that gave them the impression of being intelligent. This impression allowed them to move ahead in politics. Although Philip wasn’t especially smart, his lack of intelligence made him bitter, and that bitterness could come across as a superior sort of cleverness.”
― Heather O'Neill, When We Lost Our Heads

“The female body was particularly absorbent when it came to shame. If you wrung out any woman’s body, you would discover it was soaked in shame.”
― Heather O'Neill, When We Lost Our Heads